The Northome School Board met Jan. 11, making committee appointments, setting this year's meeting schedule and accepting donations from various entities.

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Following roll call, the first item on the agenda was the Reorganization of the Board with the following positions approved:

 Chairman: Brian Dreher

 Vice-chairperson: Ralph Lewis

 Clerk: Florence Hervey

 Treasurer: Andrew Dreher

Chairman Dreher appointed the board's members to committees as follows:

* Community Education: A. Dreher and Hervey

* MN State High School League: B. Dreher and Gary Dougherty

* Vo-Ag Advisory Committee: A. Dreher

* Continuing Ed Committee: Dougherty and Douglas Jourdan

* B.R.I.C.: Dougherty and Jourdan

* Employee Interview Committee: Ralph Lewis and B. Dreher

* North Country Vocation Co-op: A. Dreher

* Negotiators: Dougherty and A. Dreher

* MSBA Legislative Liaison: Hervey

* Indus Scholarship Committee:Lewis

* Northome Scholarship Committee: B. Dreher

* Kelliher Athletic Co-op Representative: Jourdan

* Meet & Confer - Indus School - Dougherty, Hervey and Lewis

* Meet & Confer - Northome School - A. Dreher, B. Dreher and Jourdan

It was approved to assign the business manager as the employee authorized to deal with the Liquid Asset Fund.

The board voted to schedule the regular monthly meetings of South Koochiching/Rainy River ISD #363 on the second Wednesday of every month with the meetings beginning at 8 p.m. unless held over ITV. The ITV meetings will begin at 7 p.m. and to set the mileage reimbursement for use of a personal vehicle for school district business when: No school vehicle is available for the trip at $.44.5 per mile; and at $.20 per mile when an employee chooses to use his/her own vehicle even though a school vehicle is available.

The minutes of the Dec. 14 regular meeting were then approved as was the District payment of $311,485.71 for accounts payable invoices and $23,407.28 for extra payroll, as presented, for the month of December.

The following donations were then approved -- Larry McKenzie Post No. 3869 for $1,200 for First Robotics and North Itasca Electric Co-op. $10,573.46 to the Northome Scholarship Fund.

The board then voted to...

 approve the increase of the Northome School Petty cash account to $3,500 for the months of January and February.

 approve the request for unpaid leave of absence for Marilyn Hoopengarner-Hale.

 approve the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Grant for the Northome School from the Department of Education.

Also approved were the signatures of A. Dreher and Hervey to be on the Corporate Authorization Resolution form with Deerwood Bank. The school business manager was authorized to make electronic transfers of district funds.

The board discussed potential projects for the summer months before they voted to approve the request presented by the Robotics Team to attend the Minnesota State Robotics Tournament from Jan. 27-29. Both Robotics teams gave a display of their talents to those present at the school board meeting.

Following some discussion, they voted to revise the 2011-2012 School Calendar to have staff make up the Jan. 2 day when school was not in session and to adopt Policies 505-Enrollment of Nonresident Students.

The Superintendent's contract for Dr. Jerry Struss was presented for the 2012-2013 school year and approved.

Other items discussed included staffing for the 2012-2013 school year, the district's Erate application and the SWAS program.

The resignation of Business Manager Polly Merhar was reviewed before it was accepted.

Discussion then turned to the job description of the position and approval was given to change the Business Manager job description to Administrative Secretary/Accounts Payable and Receivable and to permanently reassign some of the business manager's responsibilities to the superintendent.

A. Dreher advised the Board that the Northome Long Term Planning committee has many good ideas and has decided on their top five priorities. At the top are financial concerns and school safety. They will meet again Feb. 22.